Pixie Rain: straddling Art and Porn in Second Life.
Some of the machinima and blog-posts on this site are adult in nature and contain scenes that some people may find disturbing.
If you feel this might be you, please exit now.
Other elements are warm and cuddly and have a "feel good" factor.
Click the "Film Link" tab below for all my films listed chronologically.

The Inevitability of Fate

Recently I visited the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London.The exhibition traces the rise of National Socialism and Nazism from
1933, when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and the subsequent
persecution and murder of European Jews until to the liberation of the
concentration camps by the Allied and Soviet forces in 1945. Using photographs, documents, newspapers, scale models,
military footage, personal testimonials and various objects confiscated at the
camps (clothes, toys, shoes etc), the exhibition graphically demonstrates
precisely how Hitler planned to implement his “annihilation of the Jewish race
in Europe” policy.

As you can imagine, the exhibition is really very harrowing
and disturbing. It remains with you long after exiting the museum doors.

For me, one of the most upsetting aspects was the realisation
that all the people who had the terrible misfortune to get caught up in this
horrendous chapter of history were in fact normal everyday folk who could have easily
been my next door neighbour, my grocer or hairdresser; my cousin, brother or
parents.

And, perhaps even more horrifying, was the dawning awareness
that not only were the victims of the Holocaust normal everyday folk but so
were many (not ‘all’!) of the perpetrators. A lot of the prison guards, low-grade
political activists, train drivers, press reporters and many others were
previously living normal, everyday lives. For me, it is a horrifying thought
that seemingly most anyone can be turned from an upright citizen into a
criminal monster given the appropriate external stimulus. It is a form of
vanity, I think, to believe that we personally might be immune to such influences
and would have therefore behaved differently.

The controversial psychoanalyst Wilhelm
Reich explored the mechanisms of how this might occur in his
1933 book ‘The Mass Psychology of Fascism’.
Needless to say this book was quickly banned by the Nazis and Reich, realising
the danger he was in, fled Germany
for Austria and later to the
United States (where,
ironically, in 1956 he had his scientific laboratory equipment destroyed and
his writings burnt in a New York
incinerator by the FDA. Reich subsequently died in a US prison).

In one of his TV specials, ‘The Assassin’
(2011), the eccentric and multi-talented English ‘mentalist’ Darren Brown reveals how a previously
upstanding member of society with no criminal history could be “conditioned”
and “programmed” to assassinate Stephen Fry, whilst Fry performed live on stage. Brown used various “brainwashing”
techniques to accomplish this, including Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP),
hypnosis, aural and visual repetition and a host of other methods – each of
which he describes in detail as he carries them out. In another special, ‘The Heist’ (2006),
Brown uses these and similar techniques to attempt to manipulate a number of
individuals into holding up a security van in broad daylight. After receiving
the conditioning three of them proceeded to rob the van of their own accord,
voluntarily.

This is an important point, it seems to me. Although the
robbery was carried out as a result of their brainwashing – they would not have
considered doing such a thing beforehand; the “tendency” or “urge” to act thus
having been artificially implanted into their mind – the actual act of committing the
robbery was their own choice and not
because of any directly given third-party instructions.

As well as being good TV entertainment, Brown’s programmes
are often thoughtful and educational. In these particular instances they are also
a bit scary because of the potential implications.

All of this brings to mind the now infamous Milgram Experiment carried out at YaleUniversity
during the early 1960s, with detailed findings published in 1974. This
experiment was designed to observe how everyday folk respond to authority
figures. It was specifically motivated to try and understand some of the
psychological mechanisms at play within the perpetrators of the Holocaust. The
experiment found that 65% of people were willing to administer (what they
believed to be) a lethal electric shock to another person, if given an
instruction to do so by an authority figure.

Scary stuff.

As I write these words, I am at Rose Borchovski’s
deeply moving ‘The Inevitability of Fate’ exhibition
in Second Life, after having just re-watched Tutsy Navarathna’s latest machinima
of the same name (embedded below).

Rose’s installation addresses some of the same issues as the
IWM’s Holocaust exhibition but in a narrative form.

The installation tells the story of Angry Beth and Lot.

Until Lot turned eight years
old, everything was happy in their lives. However, when war came everything
changed. Lot and Beth were forced to leave
their home and became separated from each other. After a long, bitter war Beth
returned home but Lot did not.

Beth forever searches for Lot.
She has good days and bad days. On the good days, Beth imagines she is flying
like a bird, face turned skyward; on her bad days, she knows only anger at her
loss.

Beth’s wounds will never heal; Lot
was never given the opportunity to become who she was meant to be.

It is a terrifically emotional installation made possible by
a combination of the back story, the visual components of the narrative and
especially the incredible sound loops that play constantly in the background.

It was fitting therefore that an equally accomplished and
experienced artist should decide to make a machinima of Rose’s installation.
Tutsy’s film of Rose’s work uses many of the visual and aural elements from the
installation itself, plus he brings his own unique flourishes and style to the
work.

The IWM’s Holocaust exhibition, Rose’s installation and
Tutsy’s machinima all tackle the same highly charged subject matter in their
own particular way – and each have added to my appreciation of what happened during
those dark days in Europe. Dark days, it should be emphasised, which were *not*
at some distant point in history, but within living memory of some of my own
family members.

I feel sadness right now. A deep sadness for what happened
then and an almost prescient expectation that something similar may happen
again, perhaps even within my own lifetime.

2 comments:

Oh Dear ! Thank you for this text, puts the finger once more on our psychological fragility, and the associated risks.as you so rightly say !"it is a horrifying thought that seemingly most anyone can be turned from an upright citizen into a criminal monster given the appropriate external stimulus. It is a form of vanity, I think, to believe that we personally might be immune to such influences and would have therefore behaved differently."

About Me

Digital Arts student in London, UK.
This blog concerns my work in the Second Life™ virtual world.
Click the "Film Links" tab above for links to my machinima or scroll down to read my what I fondly pass off as my thoughts, opinions and quirky humour.